Life and love: Couple planning their future after transplant

by Marc Juszak, Thursday, July 2nd 2015

CINCINNATI (Brad Johansen) — Brides are always looking for that perfect picture to announce their engagement. As most grooms know, perfection is hard to come by. But when Local 12 walked with groom-to-be Ty Jameson in a Manchester field in March 2015, he felt perfection was coming. The 24-year-old he would propose to a couple weeks later, Sam Boling, couldn’t breathe back then. At least she could not on her own; they were days away from hopelessness.Sam said, “I feel like I’m a caterpillar waiting for my transformation in a sense” Two months after being given a second chance after a double lung transplant, she stood in the Krohn Conservatory, filled with conflict. “I think about my donor and their family and as we’re celebrating and rejoicing they are mourning the loss of someone they loved and for someone to be so selfless and heroic to donate their organs my emotions are everywhere,” said Sam.She spent six weeks in Cleveland after surgery and left with minor rejection in the lungs. Sent home with a dizzying amount of pills and instructions she returned to Cleveland after her photo shoot to be declared by doctors rejection-free.”I’m keeping a journal of all the first things able to do like hike 4.4 miles and our concert and my first jog. All those things are documented in there so they know I’m trying to do my donor proud an I’m doing all the things they would hopefully want me to do with their lungs,” Sam shared. Sam does a lot of crying these days because each day, each activity, is another present she wasn’t sure she’d ever get to unwrap.”Just enjoy your life and go on adventures, life’s a journey don’t wait to have fun. Do you like your new butterfly, absolutely, beautiful as ever.” Now that’s a pretty good photo session.